Yesterday was my brother's forty-fourth birthday. And it was supposed to be my fifieth -- i.e., it was the due date my mom was given when she was pregnant with me.

I came early, though, due to a bit of toxicity, and was born breached as a result, and ended up an end-of-July baby instead, blah blah blah. But it's as though someone in the family was supposed to have that birthday, so six years later, voila. My brother.

The same day is the birthday of the guy who was the drummer in the Jesus rock band my brothers and I were in, in the early 80's. Lauren is/was a really cool guy -- very smart and funny -- so it was nice that he shared that birthday with my brother, and the almost-birthday with me. August 22nd in 1981 was also the day that one of my great loves married his girlfriend, to my sorrow. And August 22nd a couple of years before that was the day one of my best friends converted to Christianity -- which was a significant event at the time, for both of us, so we celebrated it as her "spiritual birthday."

So -- two actual birthdays, one supposed-to-be birthday, one spiritual birthday, and one wedding, on that day.

I have certain days like that, in the year, when Things Happen. August 22nd is the most populous of them. January 8th is another. And if something major is going to happen to me on April 8th -- it's not going to be good. I claim not to be a superstitious person, yet I always sort of hold my breath on April 8th, hoping I get through without mishap, and on August 22nd I watch all day to see if anything really interesting will happen this year.

It occurred to me this morning that these significant days function, chronologically, like those "ley lines" that some people believe exist in the world's geography: lines that seem to connect interesting mystical places, or along which they think energy flows in a mystical way. These Significant Days of mine seem to be points in the year through which important things seem to bubble up most often.

I'm sure this is sheer superstition, and really just a load of hooey. I think. But it does add some spark to the year, and make the passage of time more interesting.